Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

Chapter 240: Chapter 240: Are You Saying I Have a New Sister-in-Law?

On the opposite hillside, a piece of rock jutted out.

A majestic tiger kept its eyes fixed on them, pacing back and forth on the small expanse of stone.

“This should be a male tiger.”

The experts immediately became excited.

“If we can confirm that these are three tigers of different genetic make-up, the possibility of their population regeneration greatly increases.”

Even if we take ten thousand steps back, confirming the presence of wild tigers of different sexes, the success rate of releasing captive tigers into the wild becomes much greater.

Chen Ying and Old Gao continued walking, and at the same time, they discussed matters related to tiger research.

“Are you really just going to leave like that? Aren’t you afraid someone else will swoop in on Miss Dao?”

“What does that have to do with me? We’re just pure, ordinary friends.”

Chen Ying tightened the straps of his backpack, casting a concerned glance behind him.

Brother Leopard and Leopard Sister had truly stayed behind, and Beibei and Little Fox followed them as well.

Now, he just had Jinya and Little Jin by his side.

Two more mountains ahead, and he should be able to meet up with the street rat.

Old Gao was also heading to check on the survival status of the Golden Eagles and Vultures, needing to detour to the back of Snow Mountain in Hot Spring Gully. If nothing unexpected happened, they would need at least seven or eight days before they could leave the mountain.

The gully between these two mountains was rather shallow, with dense tree vegetation and about a seven to eight hundred meter wide riverbed.

The river would flood over the stones only during August and September, with the dry season lasting at least three to four months with no flow.

During regular times, only a few thin streams, like the veins on a leaf, would flow across the riverbed, nourishing the plants on either side.

Chen Ying and Old Gao picked a place to settle down, planning to get up early the next day to ascend the mountain, striving to reach a previously marked bird-watching spot before dark.

In this area, they could get a bit of a signal, at least enough to send a message. By moving around more, they would likely find a chance to send it out.

After settling down, Jinya began patrolling the area.

It picked up a familiar scent, somewhat like the mark left by its brother.

The scent was very faint, and even if it was a mark left by Mr. Lepus, it must have been well over a week since it had been made.

This mountain had been run over by Chen Ying and Yin Li before, and Old Gao had gone up alone for bird-watching as well.

But all three had ascended from the path on the front side, while now, they were at the foot of the mountain’s other side.

To get around to the front via the stream would probably take two to three days.

Climbing from this direction would take at least two days to reach the anticipated bird-watching location.

The height of the mountain was actually not the issue; it was mainly the steepness of the path and the overgrowth of wild grass and shrubs that presented a challenge, with no trail that could be properly called a mountain path.

Jinya and Little Jin exerted the strength of nine oxen and two tigers to finally find a path that was just passable.

“This damnable place doesn’t even have a proper animal trail, can we really climb up?”

After walking a few hundred meters, Old Gao was almost at his limit and sat down in the grass beside him, drenched in sweat.

Clearing the path was still Chen Ying’s job, and his hands were blistered from gripping the long handle.

He braced his arm with his sickle, resting for a while. After wiping his face, he urged Old Gao to stop dawdling.

They had only traveled a short distance; if they continued to dally, they wouldn’t reach their destination by tomorrow night.

Old Gao took a swig of water and pushed himself to keep going.

By noon, seeing that Old Gao really couldn’t go on, Chen Ying had no choice but to find a place for him to rest properly before continuing.

While Old Gao rested against the mountain wall, Chen Ying went to find some wild vegetables and fruits to prepare a good meal for him.

Thanks to Miss Dao’s blessings, they had replenished their supplies sufficiently, or else Old Gao’s bird-watching plan would have had to be canceled.

He heated the water, stirred in some fried noodles and oil residue, and then added the cleaned wild greens, and a pot of fragrant oil tea was ready.

Old Gao ate half a bowl of food, then leaned against the rock wall and fell asleep.

Touching his forehead, thankfully he didn’t have a fever; he must just be very tired.

With him in this condition, he definitely couldn’t continue, so Chen Ying simply asked Jinya to look after him, while she took Little Jin to scout the surroundings. After recording the data, they found a crevice in the cliff suitable for setting up camp.

The sky hinted that there would be rain tonight or tomorrow.

The original plan was to make it halfway up the mountain by tomorrow, which could have helped avoid the rain.

Even if they couldn’t avoid it, the birdwatching spot was more suitable for long-term residence.

Now all they could do was pray that tonight’s rain wouldn’t be too heavy.

She woke Old Gao, and the two hurriedly set up the tent, then boiled some water and gave Old Gao cold medicine as a precaution against getting sick, before she sent him off to sleep in the tent.

Chen Ying and the two Big Cats sat by the fire clutching cups of hot water and watched the scenery.

Surrounded by trees, their shadows flickering, it was the perfect setting for ghost stories, but alas, there was no audience.

The two Big Cats didn’t understand what was so scary about ghosts; fearing those was less sensible than worrying about not finding prey and going hungry tomorrow.

Little Jin curled up for a short nap, and by around ten o’clock at night, it woke up, stretched mightily, glanced at Jinya, who was soundly asleep next to Chen Ying, and then jumped into the trees to look for food.

An hour later, Little Jin rushed back with a plump Mouse Bar, seeming slightly shaken.

“What happened? Did you encounter a fierce animal?”

Little Jin spat out the Mouse Bar and meowed softly at Chen Ying.

“I saw Jinya’s brother.”

Mr. Lepus here? Chen Ying couldn’t quite tell if she was thrilled or frightened.

She stood up and glanced in the direction Little Jin had come from; several minutes went by and Mr. Lepus still hadn’t appeared.

“Could you have been mistaken?”

“No, I wasn’t mistaken. It was hunting, and…”

Little Jin had a complex look, “It seems to have cubs. I saw it dropping the food it had caught by a hole, and then it stayed far away in a tree.”

Hearing Little Jin’s description, she knew it was a beast that had left their Jiamu Gully, inheriting their warmhearted nature.

“Is that place far?”

“It’s not far, but you might have a bit of a hard time getting there.”

Chen Ying wasn’t too disappointed to hear this. This was the sort of choice a wild animal should make; if humans could easily lay hands on them, it would be too unsafe.

Chen Ying thought for a moment, then pulled out a set of small tracking and surveillance equipment given to her by Miss Dao.

It was just a small camera that could be fixed to the chest of a small animal, with a data transmission function that didn’t need a network to transfer images wirelessly through the device system.

The technology required was quite sophisticated and also needed the cooperation of the small animal.

Of course, they could use drones for observation, but drones were also quite risky to fly in the jungle, and easily targeted by other small animals and birds.

Little Jin was willing to try another run, telling him to follow and just wait at the impassable area.

Jinya, lying on the side and listening, also fussed about wanting to go along to see if its brother had found a new sister-in-law for it.

“No, we can’t all leave; Old Gao is still here.”

Jinya meowed discontentedly but agreed to stay behind and watch over Old Gao.

“If it really is my brother, I definitely want to go over, so come back early.”

Chen Ying nodded, fed Jinya some snack pieces, helped Little Jin wear the camera, then, holding her phone, she followed it into the woods.

About two hundred meters away, there was a deep ditch about two meters wide.

Little Jin easily leapt across it using the branches, but despite pacing up and down twice, Chen Ying couldn’t find a relatively safe foothold and had to stay back to wait for Little Jin’s live broadcast.

This time, before Little Jin could get close, it was intercepted by Mr. Lepus on the way.